Welsh councils welcome health and social care review

Welsh local authority chiefs have welcomed the publication of a report into the sustainability of the health and social care system in Wales, but call for more funding.

The Parliamentary Review Report on health and social care recommends the system should be based on services that are preventative, easy to access and of high quality.

Published today, the report also argues there should be one, seamless system for Wales that is organised around the individual and their family, and located as close to home as possible.

‘The scale of the challenge ahead should not be underestimated. It is clear that change is needed and even clearer that this should happen quickly,’ said Dr Ruth Hussey, chair of the review panel.

‘We have detected an appetite for change and a desire to ‘get on with it’. A strong commitment to transform not just how much is done, but what and how it is delivered is needed.

‘We hope that this report will be a catalyst for the action that is needed, and help to guide the future of health and social care in Wales.’

Responding to the review Cllr Huw David, Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA) spokesperson for Health and Social Care said: ‘We have the opportunity in Wales and a duty to create a sustainable health and social care system that the Welsh population needs and deserves and this report provides us with a renewed urgency for discussion and the framework within which vital decisions for the future of our health and social care system need to be taken.

‘The current system was designed nearly eighty years ago when life in Wales and the rest of the UK was very different than it is today. There is a real need to shift, at pace, the health and social care system in Wales away from treatment to an integrated system based on prevention and early intervention as set out in the report.’

Cllr David stressed that funding is the ‘one immediate challenge’ for the health and social care system.

‘The reality is that without adequate funding and new investment for health and social care in the future, the changes outlined in the report will not be enough to ensure a sustainable health and care system,’ Cllr David said.

‘Bold leadership is required at all levels and I am confident local government will play its part in leading and implementing the necessary changes.’